Article

Team Butcher's Lab: Ready to Represent

Published on Tue, 2012-07-03 12:57

By:

Jane Holgate

Team Butcher's Lab is ready to take on the Games, kick some ass and represent Europe in the best possible way.

Team Butcher’s Lab from Copenhagen, Denmark entered this year’s Europe Regional with high hopes of making it to the CrossFit Games. The team fought hard throughout the Regional and finished in the top five in five out of six events. The Danes managed to grab themselves a well-earned spot in the Games.

The selection criteria for Butcher’s Lab team members was simple. The top three women and top three men made the team.

The six members knew each other, but never trained or competed together. Various sporting backgrounds, such as track and field and swimming, played into the strength of the team.

Anita Bonneson, 33, was a member of the Danish National Pole Vault team for many years.

Kasper Hansen, 29, finished his career as a National Team swimmer 10 years ago and has competed in Naval Pentathlon for the past six years.

Hansen originally entered the Open in hopes of competing as an individual. However, he recently returned from his deployment in the Helmand province of Afghanistan where he was battling both the Taliban and a shoulder injury. The latter resulted in the decision not to compete as an individual this year.

Maj-Brith Reffeldt , 25, is a chef who brings a wealth of nutritional knowledge, as well as a broad athletic background in swimming, boxing, yoga, gymnastics and soccer to the team.

Peter Willers Jepsen, 31, has a military background, and is currently a professional poker player. He gave up his chance to participate in World Series of Poker this year to compete at the Games.

Catrine Mannerup, 35, is a mother of three. She balances a demanding lifestyle as a freelance stylist and photographer.

Martin Møller, 31, is the beast of the team. During the Snatch Ladder at Regionals he dislocated a finger. Not to be deterred, he had a friend pull it back in place and went on to set a PR on the next lift. He is also the team’s crowd pleaser – he puts on a great show and never misses a chance to show off his giant calves.

Everybody on the team balances a professional career while trying to fit in as much CrossFit as possible.

The team has been training together one to three times every week. Frank Thøgersen was appointed as a team coach shortly before Regionals and has been guiding the team in its programming ever since.

In a short time, the six athletes have become good friends and a strong team. Above all aspirations to do well at the Games, the team really enjoys spending time together and has a lot of fun doing so. That being said, Team Butcher´s Lab team members say they are more than ready to take on the Games, kick some ass and represent Europe in the best possible way.